Traditional Hawaiian folk music is a major part of the state's musical heritage. The Hawaiian people have inhabited the islands for centuries and have retained much of their traditional musical knowledge. Their music is largely religious about nature, and it includes chanting and dance music. Hawaiian folk music contains many forms of chanting and ritual dance. Their folk music has a simple melody and rhythm that support their main components which is poetry, the dance and the vocals. The traditional Hawaiian folk music and dance are use to express praise, communicate genealogy and mythology and accompany games, festivals and other secular events. The dancing are called hula's where one person dance with a percussion instrument such as ipu heke (a double gourd) and/or pahu (sharkskin covered drum). With the dancing and playing the dancer will do a type of mele chant that is either: express an emotion or express an ideology. Hawaii is also famous for it's use of Ukulele which is a small guitar that is capable of making higher pitched noise than a normal guitar. The Ukulele was introduced to Hawaii by a Portuguese immigrant to Hawaii. He brought a small guitar-like instrument called Cavaquinho which is indeed a small guitar with less strings. The instrument became very popular in Hawaii as most of the songs in Hawaii have a Ukulele in them. In Hawaiian, ukulele literally means "flea (uku) jumping (lele)." It was named like this because when plucked, the high pitch of the strings brings to the mind of the Hawaiian the image of a jumping flea. Tone and volume of the instrument vary with size and construction. Ukuleles commonly come in four sizes: soprano, concert, tenor, and baritone. The soprano Ukuleles is often considered the standard of Ukuleles in Hawaii as such it is the smallest and the original size of the Ukuleles.
Traditional Hawaiian folk music is a major part of the state's musical heritage. The Hawaiian people have inhabited the islands for centuries and have retained much of their traditional musical knowledge. Their music is largely religious about nature, and it includes chanting and dance music.
Hawaiian folk music contains many forms of chanting and ritual dance. Their folk music has a simple melody and rhythm that support their main components which is poetry, the dance and the vocals. The traditional Hawaiian folk music and dance are use to express praise, communicate genealogy and mythology and accompany games, festivals and other secular events. The dancing are called hula's where one person dance with a percussion instrument such as ipu heke (a double gourd) and/or pahu (sharkskin covered drum). With the dancing and playing the dancer will do a type of mele chant that is either: express an emotion or express an ideology.